Living rooms shrink by third as smaller families settle for less

UK living rooms have shrunk by a third as households have become smaller, a study has found.

Research found that today’s homes are the same size as those built in the Forties, with the average number of bedrooms falling to 2.95 from 3.53 and living rooms shrinking from 268sq ft to 184sq ft since the Seventies.

Developers are increasingly pioneering “micro-homes” to cater for young professionals, particularly in space-poor, expensive cities such as London.

The number of one-person households is thought to have risen considerably since the early Seventies, with ONS data showing that in 2016, 28 per cent of households contained one person, compared to around 17 per cent in a 1971 survey.

Families are also shrinking, with the average number of children per woman falling to 1.9 and one fifth of women now childless, ONS data shows.

The study, by newbuild warranty firm LABC Warranty, also found that kitchen space was at its highest in the Sixties and is now 13 per cent smaller in newbuild homes. The company analysed 10,000 floorplans of homes built in each decade since the Thirties.

In the Thirties new homes were on average around the same size that they are now but had more bedrooms (3.21). By the Forties, the number of bedrooms had grown to 3.63, the highest level at any point since the data began, but the average master bedroom size had shrunk to 148sqft from 165 sq ft the previous decade.

The post-war housing boom saw more tower block homes built, particularly in the early Sixties, but a backlash against poor design in the second half of the decade led to the construction of more traditional standalone houses.

“Overall, Britain built the biggest houses in the Seventies,” the report said, adding that from the Eighties “Britain’s houses started to regress”.

The company added that homes in the Seventies began to “move away from traditional box-like design and almost took on a whimsical appeal”.

In the Eighties, demand for betterquality housing meant “improved regulations” but fewer houses being built.

The researchers were unable to analyse figures for houses built before the Thirties due to the lack of volume.

The most recent English Housing Survey, released in January this year, found that the average size of a British home was 1,010 sq ft.